How Can You Catch Sinus Cancer
The cause or causes of sinus cancer is still a mystery. With other types of cancer, such as breast cancer, there are specific tests for the presence of particluar genes. With these factors, doctors can assess the possibility of the patient getting breast cancer, and assess the risks involved. What we do know is that there are environmental triggers such as pollutants, cigarette smoke and other carcinogens. Sinus cancer is caused by these environmental triggers by chronically irritating the mucosal membrane that forms the surface of the sinus chambers. Chronic irritation may cause the normal cells to undergo genetic changes and mutate into cancer cells, and the consequences can be devastating.
Workers in the lumber industry, saw-mills, furniture-making and carpentry are exposed to fine and soft wood-dust. The continuous inhalation of these fine wood-dust particles can irritate the sinuses and the nasal packages. These factory workers often develop the symptoms of sinusitis and rhinitis (runny nose). In some people, chronic sinusitis may result in the formation of tumors of the sinuses, nasal passage and throat. Similarly, people working in mines are also at risk, especially those working in heavy metal mining industries, such as nickel and cadmium.
Environmental conditions in the early industrial age were much more hazardous, with exposure to metal dust and benzene, a carcinogenic organic compound. Nowadays minimumal working standards help to protect the safety and health of the employee, as governments accept responsibilty for the wealthfare of their work force. However, one major risk factor is ever present in our society, and that is, smoking.
Cigarette smoke is the most prevalent carcinogen in society today, and this includes second-hand smoke. It has already been proven that for sinus cancer, cigarette smoke is a major risk factor.
The various government’s health agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Surgeon General’s office, published a joint report in 2006 which provided uncontested proof of the necessity to label second-hand smoke as a carcinogen.
Cigarette smoke has about 7,000 chemicals which include known carcinogens, including organic compounds such as, formaldehyde, toluene, and vinyl chloride. Cigarette smoke also has several trace metals such as, polonium and nickel.
The sinuses have a similar anatomy to the inside of the nasal passages. Both are covered with a mucosal layer, both help humidify air, and thus, it is possible that some of the biological agents that are involved in nasal cancer may also be involved in sinus cancer. One such agent is the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). It would not be surprising if three or six years from now, scientists prove that HPV can also cause sinus cancer.
The association of HPV infection and cancer of the nasal structures (which include the larynx and oral cavity) was first reported by scientists at John Hopkins and French scientists working at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon over ten years ago.
With almost 200 types of HPVs known to infect humans, the majority of them do no harm, and only a very few are known to cause cancer. Three types of HPVs, HPV-6, -16, and -69, were discovered in the oral and the nasal cavity of several people with head and neck cancer by scientists from the New Hampshire-based Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. HPV-16 is a known risk factor in genital cancers, and may well increase the risk of nasal cancer and sinus cancer.
Tags: cancer, medical, scientists, sinus cancer